Analogies

What
An analogy is a comparison between two things—for instance, a comparison of a heart
to a pump. We communicate in analogies all the time, as they allow us to express our
ideas and explain complex matters in an understandable and motivational way.

Why
Executives, artists, writers and all kinds of other creative professionals rely on analogies
as a powerful tool to build empathy for their users and generate new ideas around a
problem. For example, hospital emergency rooms have been inspired by F1 pit stop crews,
and Henry Ford’s assembly line was inspired by observations he made about the systems
within slaughterhouses and grain warehouses. Who knew?!

When
You can use analogies for several purposes: to build empathy with users, to synthesize
and define information and to generate new ideas around a problem. We use analogies
to gain a fresh way of looking at an environment, and we use them in instances where
direct observation is hard to achieve. The cause-and-effect dynamics between many
events are similar; only scale and complexity present themselves as obstacles. So, the
trick is to come up with an analogy that’s appropriate for the context.

Solve Ill-structured Problems

You can also use analogies to solve ill-structured problems in innovative ways. Professor
Emeritus Gabriela Goldschmidt, in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at
the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, has conducted some cognition studies
with a specific focus on the use of analogy to solve design-related problems. Her results

interaction-design.org

Creative Commons BY-SA license: You are free to edit and redistribute this template, even for commercial use, as long as you give credit to the Interaction Design Foundation.
Also, if you remix, transform, or build upon this template, you must distribute it under the same CC BY-SA license.
indicate that due to the lack of structure of design-related problems, analogies prove
extremely valuable as they facilitate the kind of cognitive processes which we designers
need to solve ill-structured, wicked problems.

Build Empathy with Analogies

Analogies help us empathize with our users and find inspiration to solve our design
problem by comparing it to the problems and solutions found in an unrelated field.
In this way, analogies provide a fantastic opportunity to capture the attention and
imagination of our users through an ingenious and wonderfully simple way to build
empathy with them.

When you use analogies, you should try to identify the aspects of a situation which are
the most important or interesting. The steps below will run you through how best to use
analogies to build empathy:

01: Identify the aspects of a situation that are most important, interesting or
problematic. For instance, if your project hopes to improve a supermarket
experience, some of the key aspects might be these:

• How different goods are contained and separated in shopping carts

• How shoppers make a decision when presented with so many varieties of each
product
• How long waiting lines can be sped up and processed as effectively as possible

02: F ind other experiences that contain some of these aspects—doing so will help you
gain a better understanding of users, and also spark new ideas to improve their
experiences. Long waiting lines, for example, are also present in airports, hospital
A&E departments and even in Apple Stores after the launch of a new product.

03: C reate an inspiration space for analogies. Pin photos and anecdotes of the analogous
experiences you have found. This helps your team spark inspiration and create
insights.

Generate Ideas with Analogies

The ideation technique which involves the use of analogies goes by many names.
Essentially, they all boil down to the same concept: explore unrelated concepts for an

interaction-design.org

Creative Commons BY-SA license: You are free to edit and redistribute this template, even for commercial use, as long as you give credit to the Interaction Design Foundation.
Also, if you remix, transform, or build upon this template, you must distribute it under the same CC BY-SA license.
insight, and apply this insight to the context of your own problem—i.e., the insights on
how principles or characteristics exist within one context may help to reshape these
principles and solutions within a different context.

When you purposely stoke ideation teams to dig for analogies, it encourages them to
think about the attributes of the problem they work on in a different way. It will help the
team seek inspiration as they problem solve—they will be more likely to reconfigure the
design problem and come up with unconventional solutions.

Some designers say: all design is re-design. By that, they mean you can borrow ideas
from elsewhere, build upon and remix them to generate new formats, combinations and,
ultimately, innovative solutions. That is exactly what you do when you use analogies to
generate new ideas.

How to Use Analogies – Best Practices and

Examples
You can apply these best practices in any situation—should you want to build empathy,
define a problem, solve ill-structured problems or generate ideas.

01: E xtract attributes of your problem scenario and see if you can make connections
with scenarios, systems, spaces or objects where these attributes already exist. For
instance, if your project hopes to improve a supermarket experience, some of the
key aspects might be these:

• How different goods are contained and separated in shopping carts

• How shoppers make a decision when presented with so many varieties of each
product
• How long waiting lines can be sped up and processed as effectively as possible

Once you’ve identified the key aspects, you can find other experiences that contain
them—doing so will help you gain a better understanding of users, and also spark new
ideas to improve their experiences.

02: L ook towards nature. Look for similar objects, systems, scenarios and creatures
and observe their behaviors. They will all have some insight to offer in terms of
innovative use of resources, space and time. Biomimicry applies learning from
natural systems to problem solving, and essentially copies or borrows from

interaction-design.org

Creative Commons BY-SA license: You are free to edit and redistribute this template, even for commercial use, as long as you give credit to the Interaction Design Foundation.
Also, if you remix, transform, or build upon this template, you must distribute it under the same CC BY-SA license.
 nature to build new technology. Think of how a flower opens with the first rays
of sunshine—or how the honeycomb pattern is one of the strongest for use in
structures, for instance.

03: L ook towards an industry completely unrelated to yours. You could benefit the
most when you create analogies and learn from completely different industries—
as Henry Ford did when he found inspiration from slaughterhouses and grain
warehouses.

04: L ook for specific people you could interview about these analogous scenarios,
systems, objects or spaces. Alternatively, think about how you might do a quick
observation.

05: Use brainstorming or brainwriting methods to help the team come up with
analogies.

06: Create an analogous inspiration board. Create a board of quotes, photos and key
insights from your analogous space, scenario, system or object. This will help your
team share inspirational ideas and help keep the analogous insights in mind for
later in the design thinking process.

interaction-design.org

Creative Commons BY-SA license: You are free to edit and redistribute this template, even for commercial use, as long as you give credit to the Interaction Design Foundation.
Also, if you remix, transform, or build upon this template, you must distribute it under the same CC BY-SA license.
Learn More About How to Use
This Template
Methods of using this template are taught in our online course Design Thinking: The
Beginner’s Guide. Make full use of this template and learn more about design thinking
by signing up for it today.

Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide

Beginner Course
The world’s leading companies, such as Apple, Google and Samsung, are already using
the design thinking approach—because they know it’s the way forward when it comes to
innovation and product success.

Through Design Thinking: The Beginner’s Guide, you will deep dive into the five phases
of this paradigm-shifting approach to problem-solving—empathize, define, ideate,
prototype and test. By receiving detailed guidance on problem-solving activities ranging
from ideation techniques—such as brainstorming and using analogies—to ways of
gathering feedback from your prototypes, you’ll be able to download the other templates
involved and effectively use them in your work.

Get ready to unpack, explore and master design thinking—using it to set yourself apart
and unlock the next stage of your professional life.

Learn more about this course

interaction-design.org

Creative Commons BY-SA license: You are free to edit and redistribute this template, even for commercial use, as long as you give credit to the Interaction Design Foundation.
Also, if you remix, transform, or build upon this template, you must distribute it under the same CC BY-SA license.
How to Advance Your Career
With Our Online Courses

Take Online Courses Get a Course Advance Your

by Industry Experts. Certificate. Career.
Lessons are self-paced so Your answers are graded Use your new skills in your
you’ll never be late for class by experts, not machines. existing job or to get a new
or miss a deadline. Get an industry-recognized job in UX design. Get help
Course Certificate to prove from our community.
your skills.

See all our courses

About the Interaction Design Foundation

With over 66,000 alumni, the Interaction Design Foundation is the biggest design school
globally. Industry leaders such as IBM and Adobe train their teams with our courses,
and universities such as MIT and the University of Cambridge include our courses in
their curricula. Our online courses are taught by industry experts and cover the entire
spectrum of UX design from beginner to advanced. We give you industry-recognized
course certificates to advance your career. Since 2002, we’ve put together the world’s
biggest and most authoritative library of open-source UX Design literature created by
such noted authors as Don Norman and Clayton Christensen.

interaction-design.org

Creative Commons BY-SA license: You are free to edit and redistribute this template, even for commercial use, as long as you give credit to the Interaction Design Foundation.
Also, if you remix, transform, or build upon this template, you must distribute it under the same CC BY-SA license.